Bloomberg: Bye-Bye Teachers

Posted on May 6, 2011

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that his city does not have the tax revenue needed to continue paying some 6,000 of its teachers. —ARK

The New York Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Friday that he intended to eliminate 4,100 teaching jobs through layoffs, and about 2,000 through attrition, the first significant layoffs of teachers since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

The job cuts are part of Mr. Bloomberg’s effort to slice an additional $400 million from various city agencies. He needs to plug a multibillion-dollar deficit in his $65.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That budget is about the same size as the current one.

I’m a part time music ensemble teacher (actually an artist in residence position)
at a private academy in Pennsylvania. My main income is from piano bookings
and commercial composing, Two years ago my hours were cut in half but I
decided to make it appear to the students as if the program had not been
reduced. I didn’t want to the students to sense an austerity move and be
worried that their beloved school was experiencing financial constriction. The
principle has not thanked me for coming in for free two afternoons a week nor
shown any appreciation of my contribution. So it isn’t just public education
administration which seems indifferent to caring and responsible teachers. I
believe many parents regard those who are working in the teaching profession
as an annoying but somewhat tolerable expense. Most parents know they need
to have their car washed regularly and want a convenient and affordable wash
place so they don’t have to wash their car by hand. A few have their cars
detailed every few months and maybe those are parents who prefer to send
their children to a non public school.

Why don’t politicians ever get laid off? Do you think that if no one voted for any of them that would equal a lay off? I firmly believe that the problem is not to much government; its too many politicians replacing dedicated public civil service employees with private sector patronage skewed toward aiding and abetting the taking over of the commons and overall control of governance and public safety by an unaccountable and legally insulated corporatocracy that sees the role of government as nothing more than an expediter and enforcer of it’s directive. Corporate capitalism is a corrupt enterprise and like all such entities will eventually topple and, unfortunately, take us asll with it!

This may turn out to be a good thing. Six thousand teachers fired means thousands less kids will get adequate schooling. Those kids can bypass all that ‘education BS’, and start their careers early. That will give them a jump on all the dullards left behind in school.

By the time the kids left behind in school get out, the jump-starters will be making heavy bucks, wheelin’ and especially dealin’, and they’ll be buying politicians and judges by the handsfull. They’ll be the new ‘Powers-that-Be’, the Koch Bros. of their generation, dumber-than-a-bush, but rich.

This is a great example of people spouting off about things they know very
little about.
We hear the words “teachers laid off” and our minds jump to some kind of
sinister corporate campaign aimed at dismantling public services. “Teachers,”
“children,” “union” are the magic words of the left that are used in the same
way that “family values,” “big government,” and “taxes” are used by the right.
I am a firm believer that at the end of the day, we tend to the things we value
most. It’s not even that controversial that we (collectively, and demonstrated by
our actions) do not value public education for the masses. I know parents that
are very concerned about their children’s development and take a major role
supplementing the weak education their kids receive. They recognize that
educating their children is not the duty of the state.
But for all the commenters here, do you know anything about NYC public
schools? They are a disaster of the first degree. What if those 6000 teachers
actually are redundant? And not redundant in corporate speak, but actually
redundant, not needed, not worth the value they add? Is it possible to lay off
anyone these days? If Bloomberg, not my favorite politician, really is trimming
the fat, than what is the beef?

Private capitalism sees no need to sublate community and private
interests. Never have—Never will. Something is sublated only in so
far as it has entered
into unity with its opposite. X = X is the most basic example of
sublation.

When you are talking about propaganda you are only talking
about X on one side of the equasion that does not have an
equivalent value on the opposite side of the equasion.

When you are talking about dialectic you are talking about X on
one side of the equasion being equivalent and unified as equal on
both sides of the equasion.

Since this thread is about the teaching
profession and this is based upon academic
understanding, it would seem that teachers
would be able to respond to the concept of the
unity of balance, since that unity has enabled all
logical and mathematical understanding that
presently exists in the academic world.

If teachers deny logic, should they whine and
grumble when benefit is denied to them on the
basis of that same denial of logic.

Here’s a billionaire many times over and now he goes into
austerity mode culling out teachers. How in hell do the people
of nyc expect to get anything done worthwhile when they keep
electing the elite to watch the hen house. Wonder how many
more billions old bloomers will have gathered to himself
before he leaves office. NYC, you deserve what you get.